When Seconds Matter: How the City of Grand Prairie Stays Flood-Ready

This presentation offers a detailed case study in how the City of Grand Prairie, Texas, transformed its emergency readiness for roadway flooding from reactive to proactive by deploying a cost-effective, community-centered flood warning system. Partnering with the University of Texas at Arlington and Walter P Moore, the city built a real-time rainfall-monitoring network, integrated smart water-activated signage, and established a streamlined emergency-response protocol. This session will walk attendees through how Grand Prairie designed a scalable and replicable model—highlighting system architecture, key lessons in interagency coordination, and communication strategies that other cities and floodplain managers can adopt.

• Describe the key components of the Grand Prairie Flood Warning System, including sensors, dashboards, signage, and protocols.
• Explain how to set effective rainfall-intensity thresholds and lead-time triggers that result in actionable alerts.
• Identify strategies for integrating monitoring systems into emergency response and infrastructure planning.